The Gibault soccer team poses with its third place trophy at the Class 1A state tournament in East Peoria on Saturday. (Corey Saathoff photo)

Still stinging from a narrow loss Friday night, the Gibault Catholic High School soccer team showed the true heart of a champion to close out its season at the Class 1A state tournament on Saturday in East PeoriaThe Hawks showed their competitive spirit in a 6-1 trouncing of Cornerstone Christian Academy to win the third place trophy.

Ben Mueth scored three goals to lead Gibault, which ended its season at 16-8-1.

“It was tough a little bit to find motivation at first, because we came up here for one goal and I felt like things didn’t really go our way. We didn’t get a fair shake,” Gibault head coach Matt Reeb said.

Reeb was referring to Friday’s 1-0 loss to Normal University High School to open state tourney play on Friday. Reeb was issued a yellow card in the contest for arguing with officials. He contends that poor officiating in that game cost his team a chance at the state title.

Still, the Hawks came out Saturday with a chance to end their season with a win. And win they did.

Ben Mueth scored the team’s first goal to kick off his big day. After a Cornerstone goal tied the game, Dalton Scace scored on a penalty kick to put the Hawks up 2-1. The game would remain that way at halftime.

Gibault pulled away in the second half, as Karson Huels scored off a corner kick from Kyle Rocca to put the Hawks up 4-1 with 11 minutes remaining. Mueth headed one in to make it 5-1, and Tim Murphy finished things off to make it 6-1 with four minutes left.

“We started to get back into the competitive flow once the game got going,” Reeb said just after his team accepted the trophy on the field at East Peoria. “Only two teams in the state get to end with a win. I still think we’re the best team in the state. It didn’t come out that way, but we still made a statement in the third place game.”

In the state final, Normal topped St. Joseph (Westchester), 3-1, to win this year’s state title.